GINASFS
by kittiesrangels88
Summary: "Trade baby blues for wide eyed browns, I sleep with your old shirts and walk through this house in your shoes." In which Kendall Knight is married to the music for better or for worse and also kind of in love with film major James Diamond. Dumb kames/cargan college AU.
1. Wide Eyed Browns (or are they hazel?)

**So I'm returning from the grave to write fanfiction for one of my oldest ships... huh.**

**Yeah I've been reading waaay too many college AU fics for this not to happen.**

**Also based off of a picture by palmwoodstexts on tumblr, in which Kendall says "the only thing I've had to eat today is leftover bday cake and a shot of tequila" to which the rest of the guys reply "welcome to college". Also, thank you to tumblr user k3schmaslow for mentioning writing a kames fic.**

**Gonna try to name every chapter title after fall out boy lyrics or song titles. This will fail miserably, but it's worth a shot.**

**Here we go.**

* * *

To be honest, I've never really had close friends.

I wasn't unpopular, don't get me wrong. I was about as popular as any other guy on the local hockey team, and probably the most popular kid in glee club, but I'd never really developed close relationships with people before. Not really. I mean, I had my sister, but she was about it.

Leaving behind a nearly-relationship-less life wasn't hard for me. But being dropped into a life where I was living with three other guys was probably not the best way to introduce me to creating close relationships.

As soon as I stepped off of the elevator and into the hall, I was greeted with a shout of "HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE!"

Suddenly, a short Latino kid came running up and practically jumped on me. "Hi! I'm Carlos!" he shouted into my ear.

"U-uh, hi?" I stammered, trying to keep my balance.

"Aw, he's shy! GUYS, THIS ONE'S SHY!" he called behind him. I just kept trying to keep a straight face and not blush.

"You're Kendall Knight, right? The one from Minnesota?" Carlos asked, climbing off me.

"Uh, yeah." I rubbed the back of my neck.

"You're in dorm F09, with James." Carlos explained reading the room number off my key and then gesturing down the hall. "Me and my boyfriend Logan are right next door, so if you ever need me. James is a freshman, too."

"You're a sophomore?" I asked.

"Yeah, Logan and I both are." Carlos turned around to head back to his hiding spot behind his and his roommate's- boyfriend's door. "See you around, then?"

"Uh, yeah." I headed down the hall, looking at the doors and stopping in front of F09. I didn't know whether to knock or not, so I just kinda stood there (like a fucking idiot).

"You can just go on in." A voice said from behind me. I turned around to see a short, dark-haired guy standing behind me. "Sorry if Carlos was a little wild earlier. He's really a great guy once you get to know him. I'm Logan. Logan Mitchell." he extended his hand.

I took his hand and shook. "Kendall Knight."

"Nice to meet you. Like I said, you can just go on in, James isn't even in right now, he went downstairs to go make sure all his stuff got in."

I looked down at the boxes I was dragging behind me on a cart. How much stuff would you need to bring with you to make sure it all got delivered all right? I looked back up at Logan and nodded before heading in.

Inside the room there was a bunk bed, two identical desks, and two identical wardrobes. The room was dark due to blinds covering its windows, and the floor barren aside from my boxes that were sitting in the doorway. I took two more steps inside before looking back. Logan was gone, probably to restrain Carlos from attacking the next poor kid who showed up, and all I saw was the brightly lit hallway.

I switched on the lights and shut the door, hoping James had his key on him, whoever he was. I had already clipped mine onto my lanyard, since the lady at the check-in had given them to me before I had come up.

I began rummaging through my boxes and sorting them. I decided not to put anything of mine anywhere specific until James got back. It was his room, too, he had the right to argue over which bunk he got.

I sat in the floor going through my stuff until I heard the door open and someone clear their throat.

"You're my roommate, Kendall, right?" I heard him ask.

I turned to look at him and- _oh._

_Oh._

This could be a problem.

See, I'm not a flaming homosexual, but this guy was fucking _hot._

This guy was Disney prince hot.

"Um, yeah. You must be James." I said, standing up. I didn't want to be at dick-sucking height for too long around him, or else it might actually happen.

"Yeah." James nodded. "So where you from?"

"Minnesota." I said.

"Wow, that's pretty far off." James said. "Most of the people I've met so far have been relatively local. Any real reason you wanted to come to the luxurious Palm Woods Academy for the Performing Arts." he adopted a snobbish accent as he spoke the school's full name.

And then he grinned.

When James grinned, he didn't just grin. It was with all those pretty teeth. His mouth pulled back at a perfect angle. And then I realized.

"You have a Jay Gatsby smile." I said, blurting it out before smacking my hands over my mouth.

"I have a what?" James asked, dropping the smile and cocking his head to the side a little.

"A Gatsby smile. Like the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald? It means that your smile seems "irresistibly prejudiced in your favor". Well, my favor, but you get what I mean."

"Oh, yeah, _The Great Gatsby. _I remember reading that in high school, maybe my junior year? Me and a couple friends dressed up in the 20's style and went to go see the Leonardo DiCaprio version that came out last year." James nodded understandingly.

"Sounds cool." I said, trying not to let anything else embarrassing come out of my mouth.

"Eh, if I'm being honest, I just went for Leo. I don't care how much older than me he is, that man is one fine piece of ass." James grinned.

Oh, so he's gay, too. Interesting.

Very interesting.

"So you're gay?" I asked. "Also, do you want top or bottom bunk?"

"Pansexual. Gender isn't important to me." he said, tossing one of his multitude of boxes up onto the bed. "And I'm so glad you added bunk to that sentence. And top bunk, if that's fine with you. And what about you?"

"That's fine. And a lot of 'and's. I'm just straight up gay." I shrugged, pulling my box of linens out of my significantly smaller pile of boxes.

"Cool. Let's try not to fall in love with me, yeah?" James teased.

"Oh- um, I won't." I stammered.

"Just kidding man. Don't be so nervous. I mean, I know I'm hot, but I'm just a normal guy, ya know?" He stuck his head down from the top bunk, putting us at about eye level. His eyes were a gorgeous hazel- no, brown- no, hazel? No, brown. Honey.

Honey was a good color for his eyes.

"By the way, some girls on the floor below us are throwing a huge party, and I was told I'm allowed to bring one guest as a date. Mind being mine?" he smirked.

"Wait, did you just ask me out?" I asked, confused.

"Sure, sweetheart. Now, it's a yes or no question."

"Uh, yes." I nodded furiously.

"Great." he winked. "Now, could you help me with these sheets? I am absolutely fucking useless when it comes to making beds."


	2. Where Did the Party Go?

**Thank you guys so much for the positive feedback! Sorry I didn't update sooner, I was out of town all last week over spring break and I'm literally a month away from finals so school is just a blur for me.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Also, Mean Girls reference because as I am writing this it's the Mean Girls 10 year anniversary, although Mean Girls references are appropriate every day of the year.**

* * *

I had been to quite a few parties in my lifetime. Most of them small, considering I grew up in a small Minnesota town, but I had been to a few big ones.

But I had never to been to a party consisting of about 700 people, all crammed into a small hallway.

Let me explain to you how the dorms at the Palm Woods are arranged. There are eight rooms to a hall, with four rooms on each side of the hall. In between two of the rooms, there's a connected bathroom. (Like, the first room and the second room share a bathroom, and the third room and the fourth room share a bathroom, if that makes sense.) Said connected bathroom has one toilet, one shower, and two sinks on the same counter. There was also a common area at the end of the hallway, but it wasn't very big, consisting of only a TV, a couch, a coffee table, some fake plants, and a couple of uncomfortable looking arm chairs.

Now imagine about 700 drunk college students mingling in that kind of environment.

Yeah, there was no such thing as personal space.

I was attempting to stick close to James, not taking any drinks anyone offered me, and just trying not to get trampled in all the commotion for the first hour or so of the party. By the time he managed to get away from me, James had had two beers and I had been offered probably six or seven.

It took me two hours to find him, and when I did, he had his arm slung around a brunette girl who was laughing her ass off (and probably stoned).

"Oh, hey, Ken-doll!" James slurred, waving at me. "This is Camille, she's the one who's throwin' the part-ay!" he laughed, swinging his bottle of beer around.

Camille smiled at me and took another sip of tequila. She gestured to an unopened bottle of what she was drinking on the coffee table. I took one of the shot glasses off the table and fixed myself one. I had already spent the past three hours being a party pooper, might as well enjoy myself now that I had found a settled-down James.

"You were right, Jamie, he is cute!" a blonde girl from the other end of the couch called. "Too bad I don't swing that way, and I'm taken." she grinned.

"This is Jo, she and I went to the same high school." James explained, gesturing to Jo.

"You're sure you don't want any, babe?" Camille asked, leaning against Jo and swinging the bottle of tequila in her face.

"I'm not drinking tonight, Camille, I told you that earlier." Jo groaned, pushing Camille off her shoulder.

I sat down at the very edge of the couch, only to get body-slammed into Jo by some guys fighting over a football game on the TV.

"I didn't even think it was football season." I mumbled beneath the booming of a subwoofer somewhere in one of the dorm rooms. I poured myself another shot of tequila from the bottle.

"It's a pre-season game, I think." Jo said, glancing over to a long line stretching out of one of the dorms. "I'm pretty sure there's a couple having sex in that bathroom, the line hasn't moved for 30 minutes."

"I'm honestly about to take any empty beer bottle and piss in it if the line doesn't start moving soon." Camille groaned.

"Stop being gross, James's new friend is here." Jo nudged Camille's shoulder. "Sorry, she's not like this normally."

I nodded understandingly and glanced over at James. He was being awfully quiet as he sipped at his umpteenth beer. (I could almost feel the hangover for him.) He just kept staring me down, like I was a quarter pounder and he hadn't eaten in a week. Like he wanted to eat me alive.

Luckily, another familiar face swooped in to distract the highly intoxicated pretty boy for a bit.

"Great party, Camille." Logan said, raising his own beer. He was either a fucking champ at drinking, or he was only on his first or second beer, because he didn't sound tipsy or drunk at all.

"Thanks." Camille shouted a bit too loudly. She was now laying all over James and sprawled out across Jo's and mine's laps. She was dangling the near empty tequila bottle from her fingertips, the glass bottle swinging dangerously close to the floor, and playing with her hair with her free hand. "I still really need to piss."

"You can come use the bathroom off my room upstairs." Logan offered, extending a hand to Camille. Camille dropped the bottle and stumbled up, taking Logan's hand to steady herself.

"Be back in a minute." Logan said, leading Camille off.

"So, how do you all know each other?" I asked. I hadn't touched my newly poured tequila, and with Logan's absence, James was back to staring at me like I was a piece of meat again.

"James and I were in a lot of the same classes in high school. Camille and I have been dating since our sophomore year of high school, and that's how she and James know each other. Camille knows Logan because, once upon a time, she dated him, but then he went gay and she's bisexual, so they went their separate ways for a while. They talked on and off for a long time, and then just settled with being close friends. Logan's a grade ahead of us, so he met Carlos when he went off to college, and brought him home with him when he came home for summer break, and that's how we know him. Basically, you're the only new one. The Palm Woods rarely gets anyone outside of California." Jo slid over so I had more room on the couch. I abandoned the alcohol on the table, deciding the hangover wouldn't be worth it.

Jo and I sat around talking, James staring at me drunkenly, for 20 minutes until Logan came back, dragging Camille.

"Turns out some stoners took up residence in our bathroom." Logan told me, allowing Camille to plop into Jo's lap. "I had to chase them out. Luckily, they were smart enough to keep the smell and the smoke from building up too bad in there."

"Fantastic." I plopped my head in my hands. The party scene was not for me, I had decided. Although I was glad to have made friends with some people, even if, from what I could gather, they were all film or acting majors.

Camille's head was drooping onto Jo's shoulder, her eyes drifting shut.

"Man, you're wasted." Jo muttered, poking Camille in the side of the head. "You need to get to bed, like, now."

"Too bad your dorm seems to have attracted some of the sexually active band geeks." James said, finally speaking as he jerked his head towards one of the darkened dorm rooms.

"Aw, you've gotta be kidding me." Jo groaned. "I'm gonna have to wash my sheets _again." _

"I think we might have some room for you guys in our dorm." James offered. "That is, if Kendall doesn't mind sharing a bed for tonight." I tensed up. Sharing a bed with not only a guy I'd just met, but a guy who had been staring at me like he wanted to eat me alive all night _a__nd _was also drunk? I was beginning to think I wasn't cut out for Palm Woods life.

"I'm the hostess, I can't leeeave." Camille slurred. "Besides, iiit's oonly..." she looked at her phone. "Thiiis isn't my phone."

"It's mine, stupid." Jo said, plucking the phone from her hands. "It's one in the morning."

"It's already that late?" I asked, suddenly feeling tired.

"Yepp." Jo said. "And, you, my lovely alcoholic, are going to bed. I don't even think half the people here know who you are, much less that you're the one throwing the party."

Camille just groaned in resignation.

"Speaking of lovely alcoholics," Logan stood, "I need to go find Carlos."

"'Los was in line for the bathroom last time I checked." James said, resting his head on Jo's shoulder. "I think I need to go to bed, too. It's laaaate." James yawned.

"So, you okay with us borrowing one of your bunks?" Jo asked. I almost wanted to volunteer Logan and Carlos to rent out a bed, but I didn't:

A. Know them well enough to do that,

and

B. Was beginning to warm up to the idea of getting all snuggly with James.

"Sure." I said, standing.

"Mind getting her for me? I'm pretty sure she's passed out." Jo handed Camille to me, and I managed to get her into a decent princess carry.

The elevator ride up to the next floor was fun. Camille was heavier than she looked, James was sitting in the corner half awake, and I was realizing that Camille was a sleepy drunk, whereas James was somewhere in between a sexual predator drunk and sleepy drunk. He had a decent hold on the back of my jacket, but didn't seem to be doing anything else. In fact, It almost felt like he was rubbing the fabric between his fingers, the same way little kids do when they're sleepy.

I dumped Camille into my freshly made bed (after James's insistent wrestling with the room key for 30 minutes before Jo ripped it out of his hands and did it for him and Camille nearly breaking my arms) and slumped down against the side of the bed. James walked around me and pulled himself into the top bunk (without the assistance of the ladder- the dude's buff as hell) and I heard him getting snuggled up beneath the blankets. Jo sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk.

"Thank you." she said, kissing my temple and tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "For the record, James really likes you. Like, he doesn't know you that well, but I have _never, _in all my five years of knowing him, have I ever heard him gush about someone like he has you. Drunk or not."

I could only nod, too sleep to do much of anything else. Jo crawled into bed next to Camille, and I thought about joining James.

Instead, I went out into the hallway and fell asleep on the couch, listening to the sounds of everything going on downstairs, drunk and confused.


	3. Head Like a Steel Trap

**In which James learns that no means no and Carlos can't do a handstand.**

**Bless ya'll for the feedback, it means a lot.**

* * *

It was still dark out when a body a fair bit bigger than mine plopped down on top of me.

I struggled to push them off me, and was greeted by a "Stop it, Keeen."

"James, what the actual fuck." I groan, my head hurting. I could still hear the last draining bits of the party downstairs. It had to be at least nearly dawn.

"You never showed up, so I got worried." James muttered. I felt his mouth begin to tug at the neckline of my shirt.

"James, stop." I pushed at him. Sadly, James's upper body strength was a lot greater than mine.

"Kendall-"

"We barely know each other, and while you might be just fine with having random sex with strangers, I'm not. So get off me, please." I tried to keep calm, knowing that James was still highly intoxicated.

"Keendaaaall-" James tried again, this time nipping at the nape of my neck.

I answered by punching him (gently) in the chest.

"No means no, Diamond." I groaned, pushing him to the floor.

"You're a virgin, aren't you? That's why you don't want to do me. You want to have your first time with someone _special._" James spat, his words condescending and bitter. "Your cute new roommate for the next 9 months isn't _special _enough for you, is he?'

"James, shut up, you're drunk." I sat up, looking out the window. I could see a faint purple beginning to appear on the horizon.

"You're drunk." James shouted back, smirking as if he had come up with the most clever comeback in the history of comebacks.

I just rolled my eyes, jumping at the sound of opening elevator doors.

"Carlos, what the hell?" Logan asked, spinning around and looking at a definitely high Carlos.

"'M tryin' to do a handstand." Carlos explained, crouched on the floor of the elevator. "Help me do a handstand, babe."

"I told you not to smoke tonight." Logan said plaintively.

"Sorry, babe." Carlos said, assuming a downward dog position.

"Carlos, stop." Logan reached out to pull his boyfriend from the closing elevator doors.

"You feel like shit, too?" Logan asked.

"Hell yes." I groaned. "I just want to sleep for five hundred years, to be honest."

"You never answered me." James jabbed me in the side. "You're a virgin, yes or no?"

"No." I groaned, rubbing at my eyes.

"Who'd you lose it to?"

"Like you would know him!"

"It's no big deal Kendall, jeeze, I'm sure there's a hundred guys in Minnesota alone with the same name as him, just tell me."

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"Kendall, I swear-"

"James, you're drunk and I don't want to deal with you right now. Go back to bed and when you think you can function like a normal human being, _then _we can talk about my sex life, not that it's any of your business in the first place!"

"I'm your roommate, I have a right to know these things!"

"No, you don't! The only type of people who have the right to know these things are close friends and maybe my mom or something! Not someone who's practically a stranger!"

"That's not what you said when you were totally willing to get all cozy with me last night before you chickened out!"

"Well, maybe it's because I've had a shitty time with relationships, and I'm not ready to be hit on by some dude I've known approximately 12 hours!"

James fell silent. His eyes went straight to the ground. I could tell I'd said something that struck something in him.

"Babe, watch me do a handstand-"

"Carlos shut up, you're high as balls."

While Logan and Carlos tittered back and forth in the background, James slowly went to rest his head on the couch, next to my thigh. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't know." he sounded on the verge of tears. "My head really hurts, Kendall."

"I know." I said softly. "Go back to bed."

James pulled himself off the floor and slumped back into our room. I turned around to see Carlos fall over on his back.

"Did I do it?"

"No, Carlos. You need to go to bed."

"You wanna borrow a bed in our room? We don't have bunks, and Carlos and I just share a bed." Logan offered.

"Thanks." I sighed, standing up.

"What even happened between you two?" Logan asked, guiding a dizzy Carlos through the door.

I sat down on the unused bed. "I don't know, man. First he hit on me, then he kept looking at me like he wanted to eat me alive, and then after I chicken out on getting some personal time with him, he comes in and starts demanding to know about my sex life."

"James is a shitty drunk, not a shitty person." Logan explained, pushing Carlos to bed and closing the door. "He probably won't remember a lot of what he's said to you in the past eight hours, but what he will remember, he'll probably apologize like crazy for."

"Logan, God bless you for being the voice of reason." I said tiredly, falling over onto the bed.

"I am the smart one." he smiled. "Here, you left this down at Camille's party." Logan handed me my phone. "I went ahead and put mine, James, and Carlos's number in there for reference, if that's alright. Also, I put your number in mine." He waved his own phone around before putting it on a box labeled "clothes".

"Sounds good." I pushed my face into the pillow and promptly passed out.

When I woke up, Carlos was snoring loudly on the other side of the room.

I checked my phone for the time, blinking in the dim lighting of the dorm room.

**1 New Text from Logan.**

I opened the message.

**Sorry i had to leave, i helped jo herd stragglers out of the building before security showed up. Breakfast sound good to u?**

I looked at the time. It was 2:55 in the afternoon.

**if by breakfast you mean extremely late lunch**

I sat my phone down and thought about what had gone down last night. I wasn't particularly interested in talking to James about it, and I wasn't even sure if he was awake yet.

My phone buzzed again.

**Whatever, lol. Change clothes and slap some deodorant on and meet me downstairs in 10.**

I texted back an agreement and headed over to my room. There were two guys sleeping in the hallway between James and mine's dorm and Carlos and Logan's dorm, so I took the way back through via the adjoining bathroom.

I slipped in quietly, and saw a lack of female presence in the room. James's snoring form was still laying in bed. I looked to my phone and back up at James.

**if u give me 15 i can probably get james and carlos up and we can all go together**

Logan texted back immediately, and I nearly snorted at his answer.

**Yes, dragging 2 severely hungover dudes out to mcdonalds in la traffic is going to go over so well. This is a brilliant plan. Nothing could possibly go wrong.**

I laughed and texted him back.

**so bad idea then?**

I waited literally two seconds for the buzz back.

**Hell no it'll be hilarious. Get their sorry asses out of bed.**

I grinned and stashed my phone in my back pocket. I made sure I didn't stink like booze and party and set about waking the dead.

"James?" I nudged the sleeping brunette with my elbow as I climbed the ladder. "Come on, get up, we're gonna go get food."

"Gimme 20 minutes." James groaned.

I left James to rouse himself from sleep and went to go deal with Carlos.

Carlos was much less... agreeable.

**carlos wont get up, what do? **I shot at Logan.

**Tell him we're going to mcdonalds. That's how i got him out of bed every day last year.**

"Hey, Carlitos. We're going to McDonalds." I sing-songed.

Carlos popped out from underneath the blankets. "I'll be ready in 10." he said loudly, albeit groggily.

I headed downstairs to wait with Logan. Jo approached me with cake.

"Here, it's leftover from last night. I made sure there were no drugs. Also, here, have a tequila shot, good for the hangover." Jo handed me the cake and alcohol and scurried off to help clean up.

"Is tequila actually good for a hangover?" I asked Logan.

"Fuck if I know." Logan said, raising his own.

We waited for a 10 minutes that turned into 30, but eventually James and Carlos ambled out of the elevator, both sporting dark sunglasses and hoodies.

"I am going to die." James announced.

"Oh, James, always having a flair for the dramatic." Camille teased, passing us by.

"Does she _ever _get hungover?" Carlos whined.

"No, because she has Jo on her ass keeping her from getting one." Logan said.

"Let's go, I'm starving." I rubbed at my eyes. "The only thing I've had to eat today is leftover cake and a shot of tequila."

"Welcome to college." All three guys said at once.

* * *

**Next time we will have more bonding and friendship and heart-to-heart conversations between James and Kendall (also known as, James profusely apologizing for being a douchewad and Kendall trying not to be on bad terms with his roommate).**


	4. This Town is Wasted and Alone

**I'm back from the dead. I had finals and then I crashed for about a day and a half and now I'm back writing. And am still sunburned from the lake last weekend.**

**In which McDonalds leads to in-depth conversations about Sailor Moon and why Carlos isn't allowed to make youtube videos anymore. Also a possible sad and angsty backstory, plus Kendall has great music taste (by that I mean my music taste, hahahah, what?).**

* * *

After a drive to McDonalds in heavy LA traffic (which involved a lot of swearing, flipping off assholes who clearly don't understand the purpose of turn signals, and about three U-turns, all of which I'm pretty sure were illegal), I'm crammed into a sweaty booth with James and sitting across from Carlos and Logan. James is sipping moodily at his milkshake, taking moments in between sips to cram large amounts of Big Mac down his throat. My legs are sticking to the vinyl of the booth through my skinny jeans and I'm almost positive that this restaurant hasn't turned it's air conditioning on all summer.

"So, I'm an asshole." James finally said, breaking our not-silence (How could there be silence in a McDonalds between the hours of 6 AM and 8 PM?). "I'm really fucking sorry, Kendall. I do stupid things when I'm drunk."

"James it's fine."

"I mean, I can't help it. I'm hot, you're hot, we should totally be hot together!" James teased, obviously cheered up by getting some food in his blood stream.

"I make stupid decisions while I'm drunk, too." Carlos pipes up from his rabid chicken nugget eating. "This one time I made a video of me wearing this really cheap sailor costume I'd bought at Party City or something and singing-slash-dancing to the _Sailor Moon _theme song."

"Needless to say, he's not allowed to make youtube videos while drunk." Logan shows enough embarrassment from the entire ordeal to make up for Carlos's lack of giving a shit.

"Do you still have the video?" I asked.

"Hell yes." James, Carlos, and Logan all said at once.

"It's still online, it's got like 200,000 views since I posted it a couple years ago." Carlos dove back into his chicken nuggets.

"Again, I'm really sorry, man." James nudged me a little.

"James, I'm serious. It's fine. You were drunk, and it's not like you killed me or anything. You backed off, albeit you had to kind of be forced off."

James just unwrapped another Big Mac.

"Jesus, how many of those things are you gonna eat?"

"I haven't eaten in about 15 hours, Kendork." James mumbled through a mouthful of hamburger.

I shrugged and picked at my fries. I had suddenly lost my appetite, but I knew I needed to eat if I didn't want my money (the whole $10) to go to waste.

"When was the first time you had to pry a drunk guy off you, Kendall?" Logan asked quietly.

"Huh?" I turned to him.

"That was obviously not your first rodeo last night. You've had to keep drunk guys off you quite a bit, haven't you?"

"Well, I'm from Middle-of-Nowhere, Minnesota, there's always big dumb parties out there with copious amounts of alcohol, so yeah, there's been a few times that I've had to fend off drunks."

Logan just nodded and hummed. I could tell that he knew that I had more to talk about than what I was letting on, but like hell I was telling him about my childhood traumas. I didn't even want to think about that kind of thing.

James and Carlos had completely ignored our conversation. James was now fighting his way through his fifth(?) burger.

"Wait, so you're saying you know all the words to the _Sailor Moon _theme song?" I asked, turning to Carlos.

"Duh, that show was, like, my childhood. That and _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. _I also specialize in knowing all the words to all the songs on System of a Down's _Mesmerize _album." Carlos beamed.

"What's the best song on that album?" I quizzed. "This is important to know if we are going to be friends."

"'Lost in Hollywood', duh." Carlos licked some ketchup off his fingers.

"Alright, we can be friends." I said, leaning back against the sticky seat. "Although I will admit the 'Soldier Side' Intro is pretty damn great for a song that barely passes a minute, sets up a nice feel for the whole album."

"Agreed." Carlos nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm going to have to write down all your bands and learn all the words to your favorite songs and serenade you to make you fall in love with me." James laughed, piling his trash up onto the tray.

"Good luck with that, loverboy. Especially considering 'Lost in Hollywood' is about how fucked up Hollywood is. Not the greatest love song." I grinned. "Best Muse song?"

"Not really into them, but 'Unnatural Selection' is beast in musical terms." Logan said, adding his trash to James's pile.

"Agreed. We now must get James into our excellent taste in music and we will rule the world." I laughed like a Saturday-morning cartoon villain.

"Oh no, I'm not down for screaming." James said, shaking his head.

"It's not all screaming." Logan pointed out. "Muse is very progressive, and 'Lost in Hollywood' is actually really slow, at least for a System of a Down song."

"If you don't like screaming, I think punk or pop punk would be your preferred area of interest." Carlos advised.

"Ever heard of 'The Middle' by Jimmy Eat World?" I asked.

James scoffed. "Everyone and their mother knows that song."

"You've at least got a basic gist of pop punk." I nudged him. "Let me out, I've gotta go pee."

James rose and let me out from my plastic-y, sweaty prison between him and the cement wall.

The bathroom's about 20 times hotter, but it's empty and quieter than the rest of the restaurant, so I take advantage of the break from conversation. James was hot, but he didn't have a clue about decent music. Music is my baby, I refuse to even allow myself to be interested in someone with a shit taste in music. This was known as, back in high school, as the "Kendall Knight law". Which A, dictated if you couldn't list at least five of the same bands that I liked as your favorites, then we couldn't talk, and B, was the reason I wasn't crawling with dates in high school.

I came back from the bathroom and the guys were standing around waiting on me by the door.

"Damn, took you 20 minutes to piss?" Carlos laughed.

"You should see the decor in there, Carlitos! Absolutely gorgeous!" I joked, doing my best impression of those guys on the home improvement shows my mom used to always watch.

We all bounced back and forth in our conversation until we got back to school. "Well, I'm gonna go sleep off my food baby." I said, even though I hadn't eaten nearly as much as Carlos and James had.

"Same." Logan agreed. He looked at me in a strange, analytical way. It was a look that read "I know you're hiding something, and I'm not going to force you because I'm not a douche and we aren't even close friends yet, but I hope one day you trust me enough to tell me about it."

I nodded and stepped into my room, leaving Logan to look after James and Carlos, who were bickering over which was better, DC or Marvel.

I could have put a stop to their argument with this really deep, long-winded speech on why Marvel is superior because of it's representation of the vast majority of the human spectrum, but I probably would have bored them to tears. So I let them continue on, arguing over whether or not Iron Man is better than Batman.

So I just crawled into bed and attempted to sleep, but instead stared up at the bottom of the top bunk and wondered why I had to be so fucked up that my new friend was trying to psychoanalyze me.

James came in a little while later, and climbed up to the top bunk.

"You know what you were saying earlier, about how fucked up Hollywood is?" James asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Well, I didn't say Hollywood was fucked up, System of a Down did."

"Well, whoever said it, they're right. This town does shit to people, I've seen it happen. I grew up in Southern California. People want to make it big, and so very few of them do. You've gotta work hard to get to the top."

I didn't really have a response for that.

"Kendall, don't let Hollywood fuck you up. You don't really like drinking, I can tell. It must be a strictly social thing for you, right?" He doesn't wait for my response before continuing. "I'm pretty damn messed up, I get this thrill out of drinking, you know? Just, don't let Hollywood ruin your sight. You've got a real passion for music, dude. Don't lose it because you let this town get a hold of you. Don't be like me."

"Wait, you... Hollywood ruined your dream?" I asked, leaning up to look in James direction.

But he was already fast asleep.

* * *

**Yeah, my opinions on music and comics came out quite a bit in this chapter. A bit of filler, but I want to set up the guys' comfort level with each other, that way they aren't just slammed into automatic best-friendship.**

**Also I just wanted to write Carlos dancing and singing the Sailor Moon theme after I sang it for a friend of mine last weekend at like 2 am when I spent the night at her house. I'm pretty excited for the reboot, considering I was probably seven the last time I watched Sailor Moon. My interest in magical girls has peaked after finishing Madoka Magica.**

**Thanks for all the reviews I've gotten on this, it's really cool to see that there are people who have similar tastes in music as me. (Bonus points to btrsavedmylife for catching the You Me At Six lyrics in the fic description.)**


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